Migrant rescue halted after Libya fires warning shots

Three charities involved in rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean have suspended their efforts due to the increasingly hostile activity of Libyan authorities.

Libyan coastguards last week fired warning shots above a Spanish rescue vessel in international waters. The crew was then warned that if the ship approached Libya, it would be shot at, reports The Guardian.

Libya is understood to be deterring charities from entering the country's "search and rescue zone" for migrants. According to The Local, the measure is aimed at organisations it accuses of facilitating illegal migration.

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Save the Children, Germany's Sea Eye and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) have all suspended operations in the wake of Libya's hostile stance towards migrant rescue vessels.

In a statement, the aid group Sea-Eye said it was with a "heavy heart" that it had halted operations after the Libyan coastguard's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews."

In the wake of the suspension, Marcella Kraay, a coordinator with MSF, expressed the NGOs' ongoing concern to the Guardian over migrants being sent back to "lawless, violent" Libya. EuroNews reports that conditions in migrant camps in Libya are "appalling", and that "forced labour, beatings, torture and rape" are widespread.

The government of Italy – which has borne the brunt of the migrant crisis since 2014 – welcomed Libya's new stance on migrant rescue vessels. Italy has recently imposed a new code of conduct on many charities active in the region, including a ban on sending light signals to help migrants and a ban on transferring migrants to other ships.

The rules have proven controversial and a number of groups have refused to agree to them, writes EU Observer.

Last week, the United Nations Migration Agency reported that as many as 280 migrants were purposefully thrown from boats into the sea off the coast of Yemen. At least 50 are believed to have drowned. A further 30 are missing.